Matt Gurney: The one good point Todd Akin didn’t mean to make

Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" fumble was an honest one

Todd Akin, he of the “legitimate rape” comments, may not win the race for a Senate seat come November. But he can at least take comfort for having redefined the meaning of bozo eruption. His completely ignorant suggestion that female bodies are somehow able to selectively suspend their fertility if the sperm inside them was unwanted — some sort of manually operated cervical deflector shield — has rightly made Akin the butt of criticism both mocking and sincere.

Akin has repeatedly said that he simply misspoke when he said “legitimate rape.” He is right. It was a poor choice of words, no doubt, and something that required retraction. But the point that Akin was attempting to express when he said “legitimate” has been obscured or ignored by those racing to join in the pile-on. Akin stumbled with his words there because the term “rape” has been so complex and convoluted that even lawyers are debating its true meaning and modern usefulness. “Rape” no longer has much of a meaning. It needs further clarification. “Legitimate” was the wrong word to us, but Akin’s confusion was understandable.

Again, this isn’t to defend Akin or his views. But one doesn’t need to agree with him to recognize the trap that he fell into with his choice of words. He was attempting to differentiate between sex crimes that resulted in a completed act of vaginal intercourse between a man and an unwilling female partner, and other sex crimes that may also be classified as rape without involving violence or the threat of same. Statutory rape, for example, which in Akin’s view, probably would result in pregnancy.

Akin’s mistake was to try and specify what kind of sex crime he was referring to by saying “legitimate.” But there isn’t a way to differentiate between sex crimes without immediately drawing criticism from those eager to portray you as insensitive at best, ignorant at worst. Actor and comedian Whoopi Goldberg made a similar stumble several years ago, when discussing the sex crime of film director Roman Polanski. “I know it wasn’t rape-rape. I think it was something else, but I don’t believe it was rape-rape,” she said. “Rape-rape” is for Goldberg what “legitimate rape” is to Akin: A way to try and differentiate an act from what the public thinks when they hear the term rape — forced penetrative intercourse.

This is not an issue that only would-be-senators and Hollywood types stumble over. Defining sexual crimes is extremely complex and sensitive stuff, and has been causing headaches on both sides of the border for years. The New York Times published an article on Friday recounting the struggles the U.S. federal government and the various states have had defining rape and sexual assault, especially what separates the two. Many states have given up on trying to define “legitimate rape” or “rape-rape” at all, and now just classify it has a form of sexual assault. That’s also the case in Canada, where “rape” still has a meaning in society but not in the Criminal Code. As in many states, rape is now just a variety of sexual assault. The Conservatives even toyed with reintroducing rape to the Criminal Code as a specific crime distinct from other varieties of sexual assault, but eventually gave up. It’s too controversial.

It doesn’t legitimize any sexual violence to acknowledge that a grope on the subway is a less serious offence than kidnapping a young girl and holding her as a sex slave for two years, impregnating her in the process. (A case of that exact nature was reported this week in Illinois.) But anyone who tries to distinguish between such extremes is setting themselves up for a barrage of accusations that they are belittling the trauma suffered some victims of sexual violence. The language of our society, and even our laws, is simply not up to the challenge of clearly defining such crimes without angering someone, and anyone who tries — even in good faith — to speak clearly is just asking for trouble.

Todd Akin’s views on sex crimes and the ability of women to selectively avoid pregnancy are embarrassingly ignorant. But his “legitimate rape” comment was a legitimate (no pun intended) verbal fumble that any of us could have made, even the lawyers who deal with such terms for a living. Until someone invents language specific enough to define sex crimes with both sensitivity and precision, others will continue to make the same mistake.